Battle Looms at Treaty Site

Commuter convenience is being balanced against historical interest as city transportation officials debate preservationists over access to a new subway stop.

At issue is the foundation of the adobe where the treaty ending the Mexican-American War in California was signed.

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation plans to pave over a portion of the foundation of the historic adobe at Campo de Cahuenga when it widens Lankershim Boulevard by 16 feet for two turn lanes, said James M. Okazaki, an assistant general manager at the city agency. The boulevard needs to be widened to accommodate traffic from future county Metropolitan Transportation Authority subway station, he said.

But paving over the foundation will prohibit retrieving artifacts, including intact floor tiles, according to Guy Weddington McCreary, president of the Campo de Cahuenga Historical Memorial Assn. “They forget this is historic property,” he said.

About 80% of the foundation, discovered by MTA diggers in 1996, lies on land owned by the city’s Recreation and Parks Department, McCreary said. If the city transportation department has its way, only 50% will remain on park land, he said. A small section of the foundation already lies under Lankershim.

McCreary and allies want to enclose a portion of the foundation under glass and build a replica of the adobe where in 1847 Gen. Andres Pico and Lt. Col. John C. Fremont signed the treaty, allowing California to become a state. The Campo de Cahuenga is a city Historic-Cultural Monument and a California Historical Landmark.

On April 21, McCreary will ask the city Cultural Heritage Commission to support a plan that doesn’t touch the foundation and provides a southbound right turn lane on the southeast corner of the Campo property. It is the same plan supported by the MTA and federal transportation officials.

City transportation officials don’t see the plan as feasible.

Okazaki said one lane would be insufficient, causing gridlock around the intersection. He said that as part of agreements that MTA and Universal City made in 1994, the city must provide two new turn lanes on Lankershim.

If Lankershim is widened, it should be on the east side, the side of Universal City, said Jim Gulbranson, Campo de Cahuenga’s curator. “Most historical sites in the Valley have been lost to development. Why mess around with this building?,” Gulbranson said.

“It’s one of the few of this time period that has this kind of integrity,” added John Foster, project manager at Greenwood and Associates, which excavated the site. “Our position as archeologists is the site remain intact.”

Okazaki said widening the east side of Lankershim will not work. He said that placing reinforcement bars and pouring heavy concrete on the foundation--acting like a bridge--will protect it.

The city will also outline it with steel markings indicating its significance, said Okazaki. Words on the curb may also explain that the ground underneath the street is special, he said.

“So utility people won’t rip it up,” Okazaki said. “I’m not ramrodding an engineering solution.”

Before a solution is adopted, the city transportation department must get approval from other city agencies and then pass its information to the MTA, which will forward it to federal officials, he said. The federal government has the final say because federal funds were used during the subway construction.